After a short but spirited discussion, we have to take our leave of you.  But don’t worry, we filled up more time!  We’ve included the recording of the radio commentary for The Running Games that first aired on The Ocho Radio.  Even if you already know which guild managed to navigate the Implicit Maze and win the whole shebang, you should still listen in for our crack observations and general hilarity.

Slivers in M14: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152787820210307.1073741829.201120755306&type=1

Doug Beyer’s Sliver blog: http://dougbeyermtg.tumblr.com/post/49835902311/slivers-evolved

Rules update: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/244f&page=3

Dragon’s Maze Event Deck: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1227

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.myspace.com/swiftband
Break Music – That is clearly the theme for The Running Games. Clearly.

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-279
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It’s prerelease time as Chewie, Mike, and Brian head over to Top Deck Games in Kernersville NC to take on the ten guilds of Ravnica!  Brian’s law-school buddy John was there too (as he tends to be when there’s a prerelease), as was our old pal Robert Waycaster.  We’ve got the handy-dandy ditital recorder and we’re recording what happens just after it happens so you can get the full story without the passage of time to blur anything.  Follow the dorks (the ones that survive, anyway) as they run through each round.  Sometimes you’ll hear from opponents, bystanders, store owners, crazy people, and assorted dorks too, which only makes things that much more fun!  There’s really not much else to tell here, so we hope you enjoy!

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.myspace.com/swiftband
Break Music – You’re the Best by Joe Esposito – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Esposito_%28singer%29

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-278
Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-278-field-reports-from-the-dragon-s-maze-t919.html
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Bill Bloodworth (@SqueeGoblnNabob) joins us again this week, this time in lieu of our usual green man, Dirk.  The new baby caught up with him and he wasn’t able to join us.  The first part of the show is a look at the entire set of…oh wait, no.  It’s the Banned & Restricted list update, followed by a look at the the full Dragon’s… Nope, not yet, then it’s the Commander Banned list update.  Sigh.  After that, we move right into the Maze…oh.  The maze of grief that the passing of Quinton Hoover left us in.  That’s really a shame, because his art really helped shape the early look of the game.

But then, after all that and probably some other stuff, we move right into the Dragon’s Maze.  The full set is now available, so we’re gonna run through the high points.  It turns out the high points are damn near every card we didn’t mention yet…sorry about that.  This episode runs a little longer than we meant it to.

B&R list update: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/244b2
Commander Banned list update: http://www.mtgcommander.net/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=15735
Quinton Hoover’s Magic art: http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?output=spoiler&method=visual&action=advanced&artist=+[%22quinton+hoover%22]
Dragon’s Maze Card Image Gallery: http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/article.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/dragonsmaze/cig#

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.myspace.com/swiftband
Break Music – Techno Syndrome (Mortal Kombat) by The Immortals

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-277
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Seriously, bugger off.  Your girlfriend’s calling you.  Hahaha, just kidding, of course you don’t have a girlfriend.  Your mom’s calling you.  And your mom’s on Facebook.  HA!

Yeah, that was mean.  Sorry about that, I’m sure you have a girlfriend.  Or maybe you don’t.  It doesn’t matter either way.  Half of the hosts on this show are single.  No shame!

Dragon’s Maze Card Image Gallery – http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/article.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/dragonsmaze/cig

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.myspace.com/swiftband
Break Music – Save World Get Girl by I Fight Dragons – http://ifightdragons.com

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We start this episode off with what Brian assures us is quite possibly the most offensive Magic Mad Lib ever.  Sounds awesome!  We go from there to a brief discussion of a recent Standard tournament where a Turbo Fog deck got played!  Also, I point out how Sexy Jake Humphries made the top 8 of a Star City Open.  Aw yeah.

From there on, it’s the handful of Dragon’s Maze previews that had been revealed at this point.  So I guess you could say we go pretty in-depth on them.  I guess.

Also, there’s a small life lesson at the end that everyone should take to heart. Just sayin’.

Dragon’s Maze Card Image Gallery – http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/article.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/dragonsmaze/cig

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.myspace.com/swiftband
Break Music – Requiem for a Tower by Clint Mansell – http://www.clintmansell.com/

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-275
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The prerelease for Dragon’s Maze is set for April 27-28, so be sure to check with your local store about specific times and entrance fees. The one card you know you’ll get (although you can’t play with it this time)? Maze’s End. It’s a little funny to me that the first card you get upon “entering” the Maze is, in fact, the very end of the Maze. That aside, Maze’s End is a very interesting card to touch upon, so I’m going to be covering it in a two-part article series.

Why is Maze’s End a good card to Explore (pun very intended)? First of all, it’s actually a win condition. Some things that we, the collective Johnnies of Magic, try very hard to put together have very neat effects but stop short of “End”ing the game (more pun fun!). Maze’s End says that if you do what you want it to- that is, you know, use its ability- you actually win. In fact, rather than Door to Nothingness, this means you win a multiplayer game, since the difference between “you win the game” and “target opponent loses the game” is more important when you’ve got more opponents to go through. Second, before you get around to winning, it’s actually a useful effect. Mike taught me the value of Thawing Glaciers long ago, and it’s a lesson I will never forget. Third, Stifle / Voidslime / Time Stop shenanigans aside, it’s an uncounterable effect. Fourth, it’s a land, so only specific cards will deal with it.

Maze’s End is a card.

Yeah.

I’m going to take 2 approaches to Maze’s End. The is for a Standard 60-card deck. It’s not intended to win the next Grand Prix / Open Series / Pro Tour, but it’s going to be slanted toward casual play. The second is, to little surprise I’m sure, Commander. Although the Commander deck will be more intensive than the other in terms of size, it will borrow quite a bit on the concepts we set out for the first deck. I’ll cover the Standard deck in this article, while the Commander deck will be the subject of the next article. Also, since there are almost no other known Dragon’s Maze cards spoiled as of the time I’m writing this, Maze’s End is the only card from that set. Let’s start with the most restrictive format, at least in the number of card choices: Standard.

So what does Maze’s End want to do? It’s an interesting sort of ramp effect that rewards you for playing with a diverse mana base (since you need all of the Gates) rather than a consistent one (like Valakut). You could just ignore trying to win the game with the End’s ability, but I’d feel like I was missing out on a great opportunity. If you want to run a 3-color deck and use the Maze to get out some Gates to supplement rather than control your mana base, go right ahead. I’ll be over here in crazyville, trying to make this land win me the game. So, 10 Gates, and you need one of each on the battlefield to win? It’s probably not a great idea to have a set of each, since that’s 40 cards, but using singles of any of them is just asking to get blown out by a Ghost Quarter or Frenzied Tilling. You also need a few Maze’s End, of course. Having multiple Ends isn’t a terrible thing since it allows for more activations (at 6 or more mana other than the Ends, of course) and it’s vital to find one, but is four excessive?

Here’s a beginning mana base, subject to revision:

Lands (23)

2: Azorius Guildgate
2: Boros Guildgate
2: Dimir Guildgate
2: Golgari Guildgate
2: Gruul Guildgate
2: Izzet Guildgate
2: Orzhov Guildgate
2: Rakdos Guildgate
2: Selesnya Guildgate
2: Simic Guildgate
3: Maze’s End

Wow, that’s some crazy stuff. Keep in mind that every land in the deck comes in tapped, so you’re going to be a turn behind. How do we get around this? Unfortunately, there isn’t a Rampant Growth for Gates, since Gatecreeper Vine puts them into your hand rather than onto the battlefield. That doesn’t mean that we don’t want a set of them, however.

4: Gatecreeper Vine

So what else searches for Gates? Uh, nothing. Hopefully the Vines and the Ends are enough. As far as getting further ahead, Urban Evolution works pretty well, although five mana means we wait quite a while before it helps out, and playing two in a turn is not happening. Still, it’s what we’ve got, so we need them.

4: Urban Evolution
4: Unexpected Results

Now, let’s start thinking about what we’re doing when we aren’t… huh? What’s that? There’s another card in the deck? How did that get there?

How… unexpected.

Well, Unexpected Results is far from the most reliable spell. The requirement to shuffle before revealing the card means that (for decks with more than one card in them) stacking the top cards ahead of time won’t help. You’re completely at the mercy of a combination of statistics and luck. So why play this card? Simple. It does exactly what we want it to do, all of the time, if we build the deck right. The deck wants its lands out, and this is cheaper than Urban Evolution. If we get a land, then we can repeat the process later. The key is just making sure that the spells in the deck are also as close to always being a good thing to cast as possible. So far, we either get a land (good, arguably even if it’s one we already have, although the chances of that are pretty small), a Gatecreeper Vine (and another Gate), an Urban Evolution (much better at four mana than three), or another bite at the Unexpected apple. So far so good.

What Unexpected Results means is that we can’t rely on situational cards (Zombie Apocalypse) or cards that don’t work at Sorcery speed (Fog, Dissipate) too much. This doesn’t mean that we can’t

4: Snapcaster Mage

run them at all… hey! Silly flash mage. Well, Mr. Flashback does have a place here, since we’re running a couple of important Sorceries. Getting back to the point, notwithstanding any more interruptions?

Good. Unexpected Results also means that we will probably up the land count a bit. Plus, since the mana base is almost all Gates, let’s add another 2/1 for two to the party, shall we? Greenside Watcher can untap most of the lands in the deck, giving it a much-needed speed boost. The fact that every land comes in tapped is not to be underestimated, so more non-land mana sources are welcome. I considered Chromatic Lantern or Keyrunes, but having something to cast on the second turn would be nice.

+2 Simic Guildgate
4: Greenside Watcher
4: Avacyn’s Pilgrim
2: Mana Bloom

Now, about this time you should be asking yourself how you’re going to stay alive to win. After all, it’s not like the opponent(s) are going to not see this coming and just leave you alone. We probably need some sweepers to deal with the opponent’s threats. Access to every color means that you can tailor the removal suite to your own tastes and metagame. The ones I’m going with account for most of the problems we might see from opponent’s creatures. I’ve selected a spread of effects rather than going all-in on just wrath effects or just omni-bounce to keep the deck unpredictable.

2: Supreme Verdict
2: Terminus
3: Cyclonic Rift

Finally, I knew that I wanted to include either Temporal Mastery or Sphinx’s Revelation. Both have their merits as the “big spell” of the deck. Mastery nets you a whole turn, getting you at least one card (and one land drop!) but has no interaction with Snapcaster Mage. Revelation refills your hand and helps against aggressive decks (as if you didn’t know what it did by now) but fails to impress with Unexpected Results. Ultimately, I’m going with the Mastery, but I would strongly consider either (or both) in a slightly modified version of the deck.

2: Temporal Mastery

Here’s the completed deck:

Lands (25)

2: Azorius Guildgate
2: Boros Guildgate
2: Dimir Guildgate
2: Golgari Guildgate
2: Gruul Guildgate
2: Izzet Guildgate
2: Orzhov Guildgate
2: Rakdos Guildgate
2: Selesnya Guildgate
4: Simic Guildgate
3: Maze’s End

Creatures (16)

4: Avacyn’s Pilgrim
4: Gatecreeper Vine
4: Greenside Watcher
4: Snapcaster Mage

Non-Creature Spells (19)

2: Mana Bloom
4: Urban Evolution
4: Unexpected Results
3: Cyclonic Rift
2: Supreme Verdict
2: Terminus
2: Temporal Mastery

So there you have it, one conceptual take on the Maze’s End deck for Standard. Next time, we’ll be looking at the far more expansive format of Commander. See you then!

But he joins us this week to tell us all about Command Tower, how it came about, what you can expect, and assorted other things.  Really, Stybs just talks on and on about whatever we throw in his direction for a good long time, and it was really awesome.  You can REALLY feel how much he loves Commander as a format.  He even brought a tear to my eye at one point.  That could have been my roommate’s cooking though…

After we had drained Stybs dry of his soul…I mean information…we still had PLENTY of news to talk about.  Rather than list it all here and then list it all again down there…we’re just gonna put it down there.  Go look at all the nifty stuff we hit on!

News!
Duels 2014 – http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1195
Leaked Cheevos – http://devinwatson.com/SteamSchema/213850.html
Duel Decks: Heroes vs. Monsters – http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1202
Theros – http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1196
Ruric Thar & Maze’s End – http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1197

The episode of Card Advantage w/ Mike – http://www.mtgcast.com/mtgcast-podcast-shows/active-podcast-shows/card-advantage/card-advantage-23-whos-got-the-fever

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.myspace.com/swiftband
Break Music – Requiem for a Tower by Clint Mansell – http://www.clintmansell.com/

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-274
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It’s guest stars galore on this one!  At various points throughout the episode we had Cluze from Card Advantage (@lacluyze), Bryan Prillaman (@BryanPrillaman) from JudgeCast (and Avant-Card Show of course) and we even managed to dig up our old buddy Eric of Many Names (@EricMTGCast)!  We even had Adam Styborski (@the_stybs) on, by virtue of a few off-the-cuff bumpers he recorded for us at GP Charlotte!  We discuss everything from Prillaman’s torried relationship with Claire (nonexistant) to what’s REALLY under Mike’s beard!  Due to the completely bizarre nature of this show, there’s not really a main topic exactly, just a bunch of dorks having fun talking about whatever there is to talk about!  We hope you guys enjoy!

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.myspace.com/swiftband

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-273
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Of course, that’s not all we’re up to.  Oh no.  Brian rambles on about Modern just a bit before we get going (weird I know).  We talk for a couple more minutes about the newest You Make the Card vote (at the time it was a runoff between land and enchantment).

At the end, we have another amazing rush of gratitude for a listener who, for reasons that continue to baffle us, sent us some stuff.  And I’m talking good stuff too.  Like damn.  Check out the altered Nether Shadow that he sent to Chewie and tell us that’s not awesome:

Yeah, totally badassed.  Thanks for everything Lou!

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.myspace.com/swiftband
Break Music – Make Yourself by Incubus – http://incubushq.com

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-272
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